Zoom viewfinder for 6 X 7

Hi there,

I use a Mamiya 7, with various lenses ranging from 50mm to 150 mm.

Does anyone know of a zoom rangefinder that might cover these focal
lengths for 6 X 7?

It would be very handy for landscape work.

Thanks,

Alan Hogg
University of Waikato,
hamilton,
New Zealand

well, there are some fixed and zoom field of view finders for 35mm
rangefinders which could probably be masked to show what you want.

Ikelite makes a series of underwater viewfinders which can also be used
above water, with various masks you can use to show different lenses (they
are most useful for wide angle stuff equiv. to 20mm or so up. They don't
zoom, but you can make multiple mask layouts and they are much easier to
look thru (being designed for someone wearing a face mask underwater) than
the tiny finders on many 35mm RF units.

You could probably modify the finder from the 6x7cm 58mm Koni Omega unit
to mount and work with the wide angle, with masks for other lenses to
150mm? If you have an older 0.42x mutar you don't use, you can modify it
to serve as a very wide angle finder (see Ralph's notes on this and his
finder at http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/vista612.html for example, details..).

Personally, I'm a fan of the sportsfinders used on the old Nikonos, but
other sportsfinders are also worth checking. The wire frame types are easy
to make, fast to use, and probably at least as accurate as the zoom
finders ;-)

Finally, the simplest and cheapest "zoom" finder uses a black cardboard
cutout in 6:7 ratio and cloth measuring tape with millimeter ruler. You
hold the tip of the tape measure under your eye, zoom the cutout to 50 or
150mm and what you see is about what the film sees. If you double the size
to 12x14cm on the cutout, and use double the distance, it works better
IMHO. This is also lighter than many optical units, and you need the tape
measure for various projects and probably have one already anyway ;-)

This is also a great tool for learning composition and different
formats effects, as it is easy to stock square and various rectangular
formats for comparison. ;-) see http://medfmt.8k.com/bronlensenvy.html for
more details and http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/vision.html on rf finders etc.

grins bobm
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"Alan Hogg" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Hi there,

I use a Mamiya 7, with various lenses ranging from 50mm to 150 mm.

Does anyone know of a zoom rangefinder that might cover these focal
lengths for 6 X 7?

It would be very handy for landscape work.

Linhof builds zoom finders for 4x5" in the range 75mm to 360mm
(http://www.linhof.de/english/index.html -- Cameras -- Master Technika
classic -- part no. 001447 or on top of the camera at
http://www.linhof.de/english/images/...CHNIKA_big.jpg).
There are older versions some with 90mm to 360mm and versions for
6x9cm/6x7cm Super Technikas. The finder is adapted to other formats by
stuck-on masks. They fit on the Technika hot shoe (maybe on other cameras?).
For your purpose it would be better to use the original form factor 4:5 and
to override the original scale. (75 * (2 3/4 divided by 5) gives roughly
41mm and 360 * 0.55 = 200)
The disadvantages, the parallax compensation is build for the higher
position on Technikas and the tremendous price.

regards peter